Newsletter
Summer 2017
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A Word from the National Leaders The interviewer asked, “How do you convince another person of the validity of a different point of view from their own, such as the reality of global warming?” The simplicity of the answer was stunning: “You need to listen and try to understand the concerns of the other; you need to enter into a personal relationship with the other.” Does this sound familiar? In L’Arche, we know from experience that living with difference can be difficult. We run into blocks, often within ourselves. Do we stop? No, we pause, reflect, and come back in dialogue again in a different way. This can take a long time; yet we don’t give up. We know
this to be the way forward in order to break down walls and build bridges. Recently, we asked people who know L’Arche to varying degrees, “What makes L’Arche unique?” The answers expressed it in different ways, yet they all came down to the same thing: “L’Arche does the ordinary with extraordinary love.” We do this as partners, people with and without intellectual disabilities, supporting each other to share our strengths to make our world a better place. Hollee Card and Gabrielle Beaulieu
About the artist Amanda Winnington-Ingram spends her creative time at the L’Arche Daybreak Craft Studio where she creates handmade pottery, candles, paper and one of a kind watercolour, pen and ink drawings, and acrylic paintings. Amanda draws and paints in great detail and loves the use of bright colours.
Newsletter
Summer 2017
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News from the Regions Atlantic Region By Jenn Power The Atlantic Region is full of new life. A grant from the Nova Scotia Sexual Violence Prevention Strategy will enable us to invest in training for our assistants on supporting men and women with intellectual disabilities in the complex area of sexuality and healthy relationships. We will also be able to build a library of resources, as well as provide some professional support on sexuality education to the men and woman we support. Our success with social enterprise
Founding members of L’Arche Avalon Project, in Newfoudland and Labrador
continues to expand as L’Arche Halifax plans to “Draw the Circle Wide” through opening a storefront in HRM. Videos of art, music, and daily life at L’Arche Antigonish are taking social media by storm. L’Arche Cape Breton is delighted to welcome Louise Provost of the Servant Leadership Team as a mem-
ber of the Leadership Team. From the collaborative art of Creative Connections in L’Arche Saint John, to the turret atop the new community building at L’Arche Homefires, to Canada’s newest L’Arche community, L’Arche Avalon in Newfoundland and Labrador, exciting things are happening on Canada’s east coast!
Ontario By Toinette Parisio This past year as a region, we have tried to become more aware of belonging to the International Federation of L’Arche. Lynn, community leader in Hamilton, has a basket of 140 stones on which are written the names of each of the communities of L’Arche around the world. At our Regional Assembly and Regional Council, we’ve opened the meeting by having the basket go around with each one present choosing a stone. Then we read the name of the community written on our stone. We carry that stone with us for the event, praying for that particular community. It is a simple way to be connected and to pray for each member of the federation. Solidarity has been vibrant during our community exchange weekend where some communities have had
Amudha, from Chennai, with Jeannette Fraser from Arnprior
a solidarity walk, or a similar initiative. L’Arche Arnprior has welcomed Amudha, a long term assistant from Chennai for a 3 month sabbatical who got to know Nancy from Arnprior. Amudha will also visit the London community where she knows Mary Bee who was an assistant in Chennai many years ago and who visited recently. These relationships of solidarity create the beautiful weaving that is our federation.
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Summer 2017
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Quebec By Patrice Paradis and Sylvie Morin Springtime at L’Arche in Québec It is with great joy that two community leaders: Geneviève Moutquin of L’Arche Le Printemps and Élisabeth Richard of L’Arche Joliette have both been confirmed to continue in the role and to guide their communities in their new mandates. The communication committee worked on a recruitment campaign that allowed L’Arche to enjoy excellent visibility. Click on this link to see the video: https://vimeo.com/213688681. Each community’s local fundraising committee worked very hard to accomplish big and wonderful projects. L’Arche Agapè moved, renovated and recently opened a new space for the workshop, Les jouets d’Arc-en-ciel. At
Western Region By Marni Davis
A snapshot from the new recruitment video for Quebec region
L’Arche Beloeil, the community garden project is taking shape and will yield lovely veggies by the end of the summer. Other projects are also in the works.
cessful Community Review and L’Arche Edmonton achieved their province’s accreditation with flying colours. The communities in Saskatoon, Vancouver, Calgary and Winnipeg have either completed mandate
processes or are about to begin.
L’Arche Saskatoon opened a second home, moved and expanded their day program, and The Western Region continues to moved their offices, all in the space grow in many ways. The General of a month! L’Arche Assembly in October Winnipeg celebrated was an opportunity for the fifth anniversary Community Leaders to of L’Arche Tova Café, a hear reflections from successful social enterassistants 2-7 years in prise. Construction of L’Arche on their journey the new I Belong Centre and what they need for L’Arche Comox Valto prepare to inherit ley is nearly complete the responsibility for and the tenants for the their communities in apartments are preparthe future. It was a rich ing to move in. L’Arche experience and the diaVancouver is preparing logue will continue. for a very ambitious new housing project. L’Arche Lethbridge has Rachel and Relindis inspect the construction of Comox Valley’s new building with Garth, the site supervisor. Nice hats, ladies! just completed a suc-
Newsletter
Summer 2017
Leadership Development and Recruitment By Amy Demoulin Leadership development has entered a major new phase. The past few months have capped off an extraordinary year as we have delivered: n
Webinars reaching 173 participants on a variety of ‘hands on” topics of value for the leadership development program in the communities; n Over 100 online training modules for core values competencies – a major work in progress; and n Ten leadership training sessions across the country for 275 L’Arche leaders at all levels in the communities.
Participants at a training session in Winnipeg.
The “spring training” is the most ambitious leadership training in our history and the first phase of delivering formation and training to all assistants. You can read more at: http://www.larche.ca/ en_CA/news?article=954841&title=leadership-spring-trainings-takes-off Recruitment has also delivered with 3 beautiful recruitment videos to share the L’Arche assistant experience. http://www.larche-work. ca/
Sabine, an assistant at L’Arche Cape Breton, tells about her experience in one of the three videos produced by the Recruitment team.
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Newsletter
Summer 2017
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Growth Initiative
Sylvain and Gilles in the community garden at L’Arche Beloeil
Volunteers celebrating the opening of the I Belong Center.
By Lori Vaanholt As it heads towards the end of its second year, the Growth Initiative is coming of age supporting communities to further develop their growth profiles and building the collective capacity to respond to L’Arche’s call today in innovative and sustainable ways. There is greater clarity of the stages of growth projects and the processes/ tools needed for each phase: n
Seed stage (reflection, exploring options, feasibility), n Implementation phase (project planning, start up, sustainability); and n Evaluation and shared learning.
In the second phase of growth funding, L’Arche Canada was able to support these projects: n
L’Arche Beloeil: employment supports and a range of social purpose businesses to increase the number of persons in paid employment. n L’Arche Comox: Front Desk, a one stop access centre in the I Belong Centre for adults with intellectuals disabilities and their families seeking information on a wide range of supports provided by local service providers and professionals. n L’Arche London: innovative arts programming for L’Arche members and individuals from
the community who seek meaningful daytime activity. n L’Arche Saint John: increased visibility, and number of participants, volunteers and connections in Saint John through a variety of social, business, educational and arts-based events and opportunities. Even before projects are completed, much is being learned as communities explore new forms of sharing life in L’Arche engaged in the wider community. Read more here: http://www.larche.ca/en_CA/ news?article=955077
Newsletter
Summer 2017
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Outreach and Communications By John Guido Over the past six months, the Outreach and Communications has been speaking with the communities, external partners and consultants. The primary question is “How do we increase the impact of L’Arche in both Promoting the Cause of celebrating the gifts of persons with intellectual disabilities, together creating a world where everyone belongs and Promoting L’Arche as a vibrant, transformational organization”. For more, see Communicating the work of outreach and communications.
Story telling is a powerful way to promote L’Arche and the cause. Michael MacDonald of the #AsIAm videos is part of the conversation.
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Sharing our values in social media is an effective way of reaching a wider audience, creativity and partnership are necessary to reach people today.
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L’Arche Canada participated in the consultation on propose accessibility legislation and met with the Hon Carla Qualtrough, Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities. http://www.larche.ca/en_CA/news?article=923278
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Summer 2017
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L'Arche Canada Foundation L’Arche Foundation opens first ever named Endowment Fund Gary Sim, President and CEO of L’Arche Canada Foundation, is excited to announce the establishment of the Foundation’s first named endowment fund, The John and Donna Rietschlin and Family Endowment Fund. “The fact that John and Donna have chosen to establish the first fund of its kind at L’Arche is totally appropriate, given the leadership that both John and Donna have provided over the past 25 years. They were among the founding members of the L’Arche London community where John was the founding board president and Donna helped the new community to integrate into the developmental services sector in London. Upon moving to Ottawa, John was a member of the board of L’Arche Ottawa until Donna joined the leadership team of the community and then served as community leader for eight years. John has now served on the L’Arche Canada Board for 10 years and for the past four years as Chair of that Board.” An endowment fund is established when donations are directed to be invested in perpetuity with only the investment income utilized every year to fund vital programs. This secures a continual stream of funding for the ongoing work of L’Arche Canada. “As part of our plans for long term financial security, the Board of L’Arche Canada Foundation has approved a strategy which includes establishing a portfolio of endowment funds which will enable the future growth of L’Arche Canada and its communities. Our medium term goal is to establish $10 million in endowment funds,” said Sim. John and Donna decided to establish their fund on the occasion of John’s retirement from the Federal Government. John’s colleagues wanted to make a donation in his honour to help establish the fund. Soon, colleagues
John and Donna Rietschlin
on the Board of L’Arche, friends and family also supported the fund. Endowment funds like this can be established by anyone and then others can add to the fund at any time by directing their donation to the fund. Many people might find this a wonderful opportunity to direct gifts to their fund in lieu of gifts on the occasion of life milestones, like birthdays and anniversaries. And the fund is around for generations so the legacy of giving can be passed from parents to children; as will happen with the Rietschlin family’s establishment of their fund. “We firmly believe in doing our part to establish the financial security of L’Arche’s future. Our endowment will support L’Arche’s ability to grow and serve more people in the years to come. L’Arche’s ability to continue to have an ever increasing impact on society is important to us and our family” said John and Donna recently. If you would like to learn more about establishing a named endowment fund at L’Arche Canada, please call the L’Arche Canada Foundation office at 905-7707696.
Newsletter L'Arche Canada Board By John Rietschlin
As I write, the focus of many of us is turning towards the L’Arche International Federation meetings taking place in Belfast from June 20-27. Community delegates are finalizing their travel plans, the International team is working out the final logistical details, and everyone is praying for the success of this important gathering. One of the “less exciting” topics that will be discussed during meetings is financing the Federation. As many of you may be aware, during the 2012 Federation meeting in Atlanta, communities and voting members approved changes to the Federation structures that resulted in a substantial increase in the budget of L’Arche International. The majority of this budget increase focuses on supporting the approximately forty “isolated communities” in poor countries that receive little or no government financial assistance. While Canada has managed a small increase in its level of financial contributions to the Federation since 2012, the largest portion of the budget has been covered through fund-raising by L’Arche in France. The leadership in France has signalled that this cannot continue indefinitely. Increasing Canada’s capacity to contribute to the International Federation has been a focus of the Board of L’Arche Canada for the past couple of years. We have also been working with L’Arche International to build improved financial management and reporting systems to ensure good and transparent stewardship of all Canadian contributions. To increase Canada’s contribution, the L’Arche Canada Foundation has budgeted an increase in its 2017 fundraising for International. Our coming major fund raising campaign will include an international dimension. Our National Leaders invited communities to revisit their Solidarity campaigns to see if targets could be increased. The Board is believes that Canada can make a substantially greater contribution—one that is more commensurate with our relative size in the Federation. However, it will take all of us working together.
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Presenting a Board Member
Donna Diskos During the day, I’m a Chartered Professional Accountant and a partner with Grant Thornton in Vancouver, BC. When I’m not working, I’m a wife, daughter, sister, favorite aunt, golfer, runner of half marathons, Seattle Seahawks fan and treasurer of L’Arche Canada. I first learned about L’Arche when I moved to Vancouver in 1996. L’Arche Greater Vancouver invited me to test being a board member for a few months. That few months turned into a few years and I’ve served as a board member and treasurer for L’Arche Greater Vancouver (1997 to 2006), L’Arche Foundation of Greater Vancouver (2006 to 2012), and L’Arche Canada (2000 to 2009). I couldn’t stay away and returned to the board of L’Arche Canada as Treasurer in 2011. Being a L’Arche board member has given me so much over the years – the opportunity to work with such gifted, caring and compassionate people, a feeling of pride that even my small contribution is valued, and a real appreciation for the gifts that all of us bring in making a difference in the communities in which we live.
Newsletter
Summer 2017
News from the Federation By Pat Favaro From June 20 to 27, 500 delegates –people with and without intellectual disabilities -from around the globe will gather in Belfast for our Federation Assembly. We will work, pray and celebrate together. We will set our mission’s path for the next five years through the decisions we make, as well as the ways we honour our diversity and build unity. Our communities are part of an international federation so that we can be united in a common vision and spirit with all of our diversity of culture and religion. The Assembly is not just for the delegates who gather in Belfast. Each community and each one of us engaged in L’Arche is called to grow in solidarity with others living this same vision and spirit. We have a shared responsibility for each other and are committed to the common good. Our theme is Re-membering our future … Rappeler l’a-venir ensemble. Since last September all our communities have been engaging this theme through Journey to Belfast. We have been invited to re-visit our story, acknowledge and claim it with new insight and commitment, and together, recall all that is to come. Whether we travel to Belfast or not, the last stage of Journey to Belfast (May and June) includes opportunities for all of us to contribute to and participate in this important event in our life together. The Assembly website: https://www.larche.org/web/ belfast-2017/welcome From left to right: Azucena (International Envoy), Isabel, Juanita (Delegates for Querétaro, Mexico) and Pat Favaro.
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Newsletter Our Values
To listen To listen, means knowing when to stop And take the time to welcome another person To give them the space to express themselves To open the door to your heart And invite them to come in It means accepting them just the way they are And seeing what they have to offer And trusting them And loving them Based on a quote from Jean Vanier. Watch the animation here: https://vimeo.com/220474062
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